The fuselage and the wings of the SM 91 were all-metal with the control surfaces being fabric.  The central nacelle held the crew of two, the pilot and the radio operator/gunner.  Three 20mm cannon were housed in the nose with an additional 20mm cannon in each wing next to the fuselage.  The rear gunner had a 12.7 mm Breda-SAFAT machine gun. It could also carry a 3,600 pound bomb load and fly at 363 MPH with a range of 995 miles.  Two prototypes were manufactured but they were taken over by the Luftwaffe when Italy capitulated and went over to the Allies.  Both prototypes were destroyed.

SM 91 Fighter bomber

Journalist and political activist Benito Mussolini was in his mid 30s when, having abandoned Internationalist Revolutionary Socialism in favour of a pre-Fascist National Revolutionary stance, he volunteered for service in the Italian Army.  Quite a turn-around - as a young Internationalist, he had fled Italy temporarily to avoid military service.  He spent the best part of a year on the front line at the Isonzo, before being discharged in 1917 following a severe wounding caused by a grenade explosion in his trench - a very common occurrance in Italian trenches on the Isonzo.  Italian records indicate that he was an exemplary soldier.  Good view of his M91 rifle, a model (in several variants) still standard in the Italian Army in WW2.  Best regards, JR.

Young Mussolini.

Fiat CR.42CNs of Italian Regia Aeronatica’s 300th Squadriglia at Ciampino Airport, Rome, 1942. The CN (Night Fighter) was the CR.42’s night fighter version with spotlights pods under the wings (clearly visible under the port wing of the plane in foreground) and prolonged engine exhausts plus radio and artificial horizon. Between 1942 and 1943 Fiat produced circa 250-300 CR.42CNs however little useful against the night raids of RAF Bomber Command. Victor Sierra